A Pilot Study of a Self-Administered Parent Training Intervention for Building Preschoolers’ Social–Emotional Competence

Social–emotional skills are equally as crucial for school success as cognitive and academic skills (Webster-Stratton and Reid in Infants Young Child 17:96–113, 2004), yet many young children lack these skills (Lavigne et al. in J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 35:204–214, 1996). Therefore, it is essential to invest in the development of social–emotional competence at an early age—a task that necessitates active parent involvement (Webster-Stratton and Reid 2004). This pilot study explored the effectiveness, integrity, and acceptability of a self-administered parent training intervention [Devereux Early Childhood Assessment—Second Edition (DECA-P2) family guide (Mackrain and Cairone in Promoting resilience for now and forever: a family guide for supporting the social and emotional development of preschool children, 2nd edn. Kaplan Early Learning Company, Lewisville, 2013)] targeting the promotion of social–emotional competence in young children (N = 12). Pre- and post-test parent reports revealed that children’s social–emotional competence increased and behavior problems decreased following program completion. Parent ratings indicated the intervention was carried out as intended (i.e., integrity) and that it was helpful (i.e., acceptability). These exploratory findings suggest that this self-administered parent intervention shows promise as an alternative to face-to-face early childhood prevention services.     

Curriculum as Experienced by Students: How Teacher Identity Shapes Science Notebook Use

This mixed-methods case study examined the notebook entries of one class of 22 second graders as a way of examining how teacher identity shaped the way students experienced their science curriculum. These notebook entries were created during lessons with three different teachers over the course of one school year, using similar kit-based materials to teach science. The entries were coded for inquiry phase, percent missing or incomplete entries, and driving force (teacher-driven, student-driven, or balanced); chi-squared analyses revealed significant differences among the notebook entries created by the same students during lessons taught by each of the three teachers. Qualitative observations of each teachers' instruction around notebook use supported these quantitative differences, and suggested that the differences in curriculum as experienced by students could be attributed to differences in teacher identity, both who the teacher is and what they do in the classroom. These findings indicate that students' notebooks are useful tools for examining how teachers' identities might shape how elementary students experience science curriculum, and that they can be used to help structure more effective professional development plans for each teacher.     

Assessment of mentally retarded children with the Matrix Analogies Test-Short Form,Draw A Person: A quantitative scoring system,and the Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement

This study examined the utility of the MAT-SF and the DAP: A Quantitative Scoring System as screening instruments for mental retardation. In this study, 46 normals and 39 developmentally handicapped (DH) 4th- and 5th-grade students were group administered both screening tests and individually administered an achievement test, the KTEA. The results found the MAT-SF to correlate significantly with all areas of achievement for both groups, whereas the DAP did not correlate significantly with any areas of achievement for the normal group but correlated significantly with math, but not reading, for the developmentally handicapped students. The results support the use of the MAT-SF as a screening instrument for mental retardation, whereas the usefulness of the DAP is not as clear.     

Commentary

This paper examines the sociological implications of sport as a male preserve. Sport is a gendered cultural form that has been dominated by men and masculinity. The effects of this domination upon broader patterns of social relations have been misrepresented in much of the literature on sport and gender, where sport is often conceptualized as a static fact, rather than as a dynamic social practice. Analysis of sport as social practice directs attention to the manner in which sport gives meaning to broader patterns of social relations. In the case of gender relations, sport as a male preserve has contributed to the oppression of women through the objectification and dornination of their physicality and sexuality. A feminist alternative to sport as a male preserve challenges gender inequality by challenging sexual stereotypes and patriarchal control of women's bodies.     

北京城市绿地对大气PM_(2.5)的削减作用

PM2.5导致的大气污染已经成为中国经济快速发展地区共同面临的问题。城市绿地对削减大气PM2.5具有一定的作用。本研究基于NDVI数据模拟北京城市绿地叶面积指数,再利用干沉降模型模拟区域绿地PM2.5削减量,最后根据大气PM2.5存量计算了绿地对大气PM2.5的去除效果。研究结果显示,2000年、2005年和2010年北京城市绿地PM2.5削减总量分别为1 861t、2 987t和3 852t,单位面积削减量分别为22.71kg/hm2、24.64kg/hm2和33.36kg/hm2,可分别将研究区内PM2.5削减0.07%、0.12%和0.19%。苗圃与果园、社区林和路旁林的PM2.5削减总量较高,而针阔混交林、灌木林和针叶林的单位面积削减量较高。五环以外绿地的PM2.5削减总量、单位面积削减量和大气PM2.5去除率都高于五环以内绿地。本研究可以为北京城市规划中更好发挥绿地缓解大气PM2.5作用提供决策依据。     

Exploring School Principals’ Leadership Styles and Learners’ Educational Performance: A Perspective from High- and Low-Performing Schools

School leadership is fundamental to the educational functioning of schools and their improvements of results. The study employed a qualitative approach to explore school principals’ leadership styles and the educational performance of learners in high- and low-performing schools in Vhembe District, Limpopo, South Africa. The participants were purposefully selected from 10 secondary schools in terms of their performance. Focus group interviews were conducted with five teachers from each school. The interview data was transcribed and analysed, and identical patterns of coded data were grouped together under emerging themes. The overall results of the study indicated that the democratic leadership style together with the transformational leadership style contribute to high educational performance of learners. School principals from high- and low-performing schools employ a democratic leadership style and differ only in the sense that the latter are permissive or lenient towards learners’ behaviours or conduct. The study recommends that school principals engage teachers as members of a disciplinary committee in order to deal with those learners whose conduct is not conducive to successful teaching and learning. It is recommended that school principals from low-performing schools strengthen their democratic leadership by not being lenient to learners’ behaviour which is not conducive to successful teaching and learning.     

Direction of arrival tracking for signals with known waveforms based on block least squares techniques

In this paper, we address the problem of tracking DOA of multiple moving targets with known signal source waveforms and unknown gains in the presence of Gaussian noise using a nonuniform linear array. Herein, we make use of the fact that the output of each sensor can be described as a linear regression model whose coefficients each contain a pair of DOA and gain information corresponding to one target. These coefficients are determined by solving a linear least squares (LS) problem and then updated recursively based on a block QR decomposition recursive least squares (QRD-RLS) technique or a block regularized LS technique. Since the coefficients from different sensors have the same amplitude but variable phase information for the same signal, along with simple algebraic manipulations the well-known generalized least squares (GLS) are used to obtain an asymptotically-optimal DOA estimate without requiring a search over a large region of the parameter space. Computer simulations show that the proposed DOA tracking techniques when applied to a sparse antenna array can provide a better tracking performance than some of the existing methods do.